In the Senate was another great man, Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. Although Jackson and Benton had once fought a terrible duel in Nashville, they now were good friends. Benton attacked Clay, Webster, and Calhoun in powerful speeches and defended President Jackson in every way he could. At last, after several years, he succeeded in getting the Senate to expunge, or take away, from their records the resolution blaming President Jackson. There was great rejoicing among Jackson's friends, and Senator Benton was the hero of the day. President Jackson gave a great dinner party in Washington in Benton's honor. [Illustration: THE SCENE OF JACKSON'S CAMPAIGNS] [Sidenote: =Nullification=] For a long time South Carolina and other southern states had been complaining about the high tariff which Congress had passed. In 1832 South Carolina declared in a state convention that her people should not pay the tariff any longer. She resolved to fight rather than obey the law and pay the tariff. This act of the convention was called nullification. [Sidenote: =President Jackson's proclamation=] President Jackson was very angry when he heard of this act of South Carolina. He told General Scott to take soldiers and war vessels to Charleston, and enforce the law at all hazards. The president published a letter to the people of South Carolina, warning them not to nullify a law of Congress. [Sidenote: =Jackson a Union man=] These acts made President Jackson very popular at the North, where the people all believed the president had saved the Union from breaking up. In 1837 his second term as president expired and he retired from public life after having seen his good friend, Martin Van Buren of New York, made president. [Sidenote: =Death at the Hermitage=] Jackson returned to Tennessee, greatly beloved by the people. There, in his home, called the Hermitage, he spent the rest of his life. He died in 1845, at the age of seventy-eight. [Illustration: THE TOMB OF ANDREW JACKSON] SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL =The Leading Facts.= _1._ Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts. _2._ As a boy he was very much interested in tools, and worked in his father's shop with all kinds of mechanical contrivances. _3._ He earned his way through college doing carpenter work. _4._ After graduation he set out to teach in Savannah. _5._ He failed to get the situation, and went to visit a friend who had taken much interest in him. _6._ The South needed a machine to separate the cotton fiber from the seed. _7._ Whitney set to work to make one, at the suggestion of his friend, Mrs. Greene. _8._ The cotton gin revolutionized the South. _9._ It made cotton raising the chief industry, and brought thousands of slaves into the country.